Design and Prototype Implementation of a Renewable Energy-Powered Home with Home Automation System Using Internet of Things (IoT)

Abstract

This paper presents a design and prototype implementation of a renewable energy-powered home with a basic home automation system using Internet Of things (IoT). The proposed system consists of two main parts; The first part consists of renewable energy (solar) power system where the power supplied to the house is produced from solar panel(s), which will be supplied to an inverter through a MPPT-based solar charge controller. A battery has been used in the system as a backup power supply which will be charged with the help of the charge controller. The excess power generated (when no home appliances are used and the battery is fully charged) will be supplied to the power grid or will be used to run an external AC motors such as water pumps. The second part consists of home automation using Internet Of things (IOT) using a Wi-Fi interface and an android application BLYNK. With the help of the mentioned android application BLYNK, the user will be able to know the current status of the lights and other electrical appliances of their house, whether the lights and other electrical appliances are turned on/off, and can remotely turn on/off the appliances and lights. The home automation in this prototype is focussed on the parts only where most of the energy could be wasted when we forget to turn off the lights, fan and power plugs while leaving the house and could be turned on/off remotely through an android app. The two subparts of the design will be finally combined to make a renewable energy-based smart home. Unlike the costly and sophisticated home automation systems available in the market, this design is cheap and simple, and can be easily implemented in our home.